LGAs demands 35% revenue sharing rejects FG proposal

The 774 local government areas in the country, under the aegis of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, have demanded 35 per cent of the federal allocation as the review of the revenue sharing formula initiated by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission begins soon.

The association, therefore, rejected the 23 per cent proposed for the local governments by governors. The local government, as the third tier of government, currently gets 20.60 per cent from the federal allocation.

Saturday PUNCH had exclusively reported that the governors of the 36 states said they would demand 42 per cent as against their current 26.72 per cent, while proposing that the Federal Government’s share be slashed from 52.68 per cent to 37 per cent and the local governments’ share be increased from 20.60 per cent to 23 per cent.

A highly placed source privy to the pre-meeting discussions among governors had told Saturday PUNCH about the formula being proposed by the governors.

The Chairman, RMAFC, Mr Elias Mbam, on August 15 inaugurated a standing committee which was mandated to give the nation a new revenue sharing formula.

He had on August 6 said the fresh review of the current formula, which was designed during the tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who ruled between 1999 and 2007, was predicated on the current economic realities.